Storytime book of the month: No bears

There are many ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

No bears is an Australian picture book written by Meg McKinlay and illustrated by Leila Rudge. It is a fun and humorous tale of adventure﻿ that will engage children from ages 3 upward.

Ruby is in charge of this book and is most adamant that there be no bears in it. Not even one. In fact, the most important thing about Ruby’s story is that there are no bears in it. The secondary criteria are that the story must be scary, exciting and pretty. So there is a beautiful princess living in a faraway castle, a deep dark forest and a monster. What story could possibly be better?

But are there really no bears? Ruby’s efforts to exclude bears seemingly backfires when a bear is ultimately the star of the story. Young children will enjoy spotting the bear within the book’s pages. Humour hiding in the illustrations complements Ruby’s tale and places emphasis on its funny side. On another level lies a message about inclusivity and friendship.

There are numerous references to fairytales and rhymes throughout the story. Children will readily recognise these and enjoy pointing them out – like an owl and a pussycat rowing the monster in a bathtub and a girl letting down her long golden hair.

No bears is a delightful addition to the Library’s storytime resources and will be equally at home in both our “Bears” and “Fairytales” storytime kits. A copy is also available for you to borrow from the Library Service. Happy reading!

You have Successfully Subscribed!

About The Author

I completed my tertiary qualification in Library and Information Studies in 1991 and began my career as a Librarian at the Supreme Court Law Library in 1992. Later that same year, I took a position as a Reference Librarian at the Perth Public Library and have been working in public libraries ever since. I have become very interested in the importance of early literacy and the significant relationship between reading for pleasure and the future success of a child.

3 Comments

Meg McKinlay
on 09/01/2012 at 1:12 pm

How lovely to see my book featured here. Does this mean you’ll be using it during a storytime session? If so, I would love to sit in on one if that were possible (I am local and a member of Spearwood Library).If you could let me know, that would be great.Thanks!

As Karyn said above this is normally part of the Bears or Fairy Tale themes so it will be read when those storytime sessions occur. I’ll post a list of the storytime themes starting February 1st at the three libraries soon. I’m also planning something with Meg that should be fun sometime in the future. 🙂